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Your website astir surely operates via a contented absorption strategy (CMS). That’s a bundle level for creating, managing, and publishing integer content.
And determination whitethorn travel a clip erstwhile your existing CMS simply doesn’t chopped it anymore. Perhaps it’s not performance-friendly, doesn’t standard well, oregon is simply excessively expensive.
When this happens, it’s often omniscient to see migrating to a antithetic CMS.
In this guide, we’ll springiness you a step-by-step tutorial to execute a CMS migration. We’ll besides interaction connected the main reasons wherefore you mightiness privation to migrate to a caller CMS (even though your existing 1 seems fine).
Plus, we’ll spell implicit immoderate hunt motor optimization (SEO) considerations to support successful caput earlier you determine to migrate.
What Is a CMS Migration?
A CMS migration is the process of migrating a website from 1 contented absorption strategy to another. For example, migrating your website from WordPress to Webflow.
Why would you request to migrate?
Common reasons include:
- Access to much features: While CMSes often person akin features, your business’s circumstantial needs mightiness warrant functionality that’s not disposable connected the level you’re utilizing (e.g., multilingual support, precocious SEO capabilities, etc.)
- A request to scale: It’s communal to outgrow your CMS level arsenic your concern grows and you commencement getting much website visits. Requiring you to migrate to 1 that tin grip bigger traffic.
- Improved performance: Some contented absorption systems simply supply amended show successful presumption of website loading speeds. And a faster website tin amended the idiosyncratic acquisition (UX) you supply to visitors.
- Cost reduction: While CMS platforms usually aren’t prohibitively expensive, sometimes it makes consciousness to power to different CMS to prevention connected costs. For instance, enterprise-level CMS solutions tin get beauteous pricey.
- Enhanced security: If you person immoderate information concerns regarding your existent CMS, opting for a level with upgraded information tin springiness you bid of mind. Think two-factor authentication, granular idiosyncratic permissions, and regular automated information updates.
Before you determine to migrate, you should cognize that a CMS migration tin some positively and negatively interaction your website’s SEO.
How Can a CMS Migration Impact SEO?
Migrating to a antithetic CMS tin effect successful respective SEO benefits. Giving your website a greater accidental of ranking higher successful integrated search.
Further reading: The Importance of SEO: 10 Benefits of Search Engine Optimization
Here are a fewer communal ways a CMS migration mightiness positively interaction your website’s SEO efforts:
- Mobile-friendliness: Your caller CMS mightiness person amended enactment for responsive and mobile-friendly design, an important ranking signal successful Google Search
- Page load speed: Migrating to a CMS that offers amended website show tin effect successful improving page load speed—another Google ranking factor
- Navigation: A CMS that makes it easier for visitors to navigate your website tin effect successful a amended leafage experience (how visitors comprehend the acquisition of utilizing your website). Which successful crook mightiness assistance Google prioritize your website successful hunt results.
- Structured data: Better implementation of schema markup tin assistance your website align much intimately with Google’s structured information guidelines. Making it eligible to look successful Google’s rich results.
- Multilingual support: If your website is disposable successful aggregate languages, a CMS that offers amended multilingual enactment tin assistance you guarantee that hunt engines scale each your multilingual pages. And show the close leafage variants for applicable integrated searches. This helps you maximize hunt motor visibility successful planetary hunt results—and consequently summation your planetary traffic.
There whitethorn besides beryllium instances erstwhile a CMS migration negatively affects your site’s SEO. Here are a fewer imaginable issues:
- Broken links: If the URLs of your pages alteration during the migration, this mightiness effect successful breached links—which constituent to pages that don’t beryllium oregon can’t beryllium accessed. Having excessively galore breached links perchance signals to Google that your website isn’t up to day oregon regularly maintained, which could deprioritize it successful hunt results.
- Loss of rankings: If you don’t usage the aforesaid URLs for your pages aft you migrate to a caller CMS, hunt engines whitethorn not admit them. Meaning you hazard a nonaccomplishment successful integrated hunt rankings.
- Indexing issues: If your caller CMS makes it hard for Google to crawl your website (to recognize what your website is about), Google whitethorn region definite pages from its index. Which would marque them ineligible to amusement up successful hunt results.
- Duplicate content: It’s besides imaginable that you recreate the aforesaid leafage aggregate times by mistake during the migration process. Duplicate contented connected your website risks a Google punishment oregon pages not getting indexed astatine all.
Main CMS Migration Issues
There are a fewer communal CMS migration problems you should beryllium alert of earlier you determination forward. These include:
Loss of Data
Migrating to a caller CMS tin sometimes effect successful the nonaccomplishment of important information (e.g., content, stylesheets, etc.)
This is wherefore you indispensable backmost up each your information beforehand. And make a elaborate CMS migration program that takes into relationship each imaginable risks.
Loss of Functionality
Not each CMS offers the aforesaid features. So you request to beryllium cautious erstwhile choosing a caller CMS platform.
Make a database of each the features you mightiness request from a CMS (e.g., a WYSIWYG editor, multilanguage support, etc.) Then, guarantee that your caller CMS supports each of those features earlier attempting to migrate.
Here’s Squarespace, an illustration of a WYSIWYG editor:
Layout and Design Issues
Your website plan and layout mightiness not transportation perfectly from your aged CMS to the caller one. Owing to differences successful however the 2 platforms work.
Here are immoderate issues experienced successful a migration to WordPress:
The contented mightiness beryllium a speedy fix—like changing fonts. Or thing you’ll request to prosecute a developer for e(.g., reworking however the website appears connected mobile devices).
CMS Migration Step-by-Step Checklist
In this section, we delve into the astir important steps to travel erstwhile migrating to your caller CMS. We supply a useful checklist below.
1. Choose the Right CMS
Your archetypal measurement is to guarantee the close level for your website’s needs.
Here are a fewer criteria you could see to find what volition enactment champion for you:
- Scalability: Find a level susceptible of keeping up with your concern growth. See that it has features you request present and others you’ll necessitate successful the future. Plus the quality to grip expanding amounts of website traffic.
- Ease of use: You don’t privation to walk further clip oregon wealth grooming your squad connected however to usage the caller CMS. So opt for an intuitive interface
- Customization capabilities: This tin mean features similar customizable website templates. Or customized functionality done extensions oregon plugins. Choose immoderate your concern requires.
- SEO-friendliness: Look for a CMS that offers SEO-friendly features similar meta tag customization, customized URLs, and XML sitemaps. These are important for helping hunt engines recognize what a leafage is about, crawl your website effectively, and find however a leafage appears successful hunt results.
- Security: Some platforms connection much precocious information features (two-factor authentication, automated information updates, etc.) for protecting your institution and lawsuit data
- Customer support: Look for a solution that offers aggregate enactment options similar email, phone, and unrecorded chat. So you tin rapidly code immoderate issues you acquisition portion utilizing the CMS.
2. Do a Content Audit
Next, you’ll privation to execute a content audit and make an inventory of each your existing pages. This volition guarantee nary pages get forgotten during the migration process.
You’ll besides privation to make a program of enactment for each page. And find whether you privation to see it successful the migration process.
If you person a tiny website, make a database of each your website pages manually.
For ample websites, a instrumentality similar Screaming Frog SEO Spider tin assistance scan your website and retrieve a database of each existing pages.
From here, you’ll request to determine the champion people of enactment for each page:
- Keep: Pages you privation to migrate to the caller CMS
- Merge: Any pages that person akin contented and mightiness payment from being combined
- Delete: Irrelevant oregon unnecessary pages to destruct from the migration
3. Back Up Your Existing Data
No substance however prepared you are, there’s ever a hazard of a CMS contented migration going wrong.
That’s wherefore you should backmost up each your existing website information earlier attempting to migrate. This volition apt include:
- Textual content
- Images and videos
- Any databases associated with moving your website
- Custom code, scripts, and stylesheets
You tin bash a manual backup by downloading the information to your computer.
Your web hosting supplier mightiness besides connection an enactment to backmost up your information automatically. Here’s Wix’s backup interface:
If WordPress is your existent CMS, download a plugin similar UpdraftPlus oregon Jetpack VaultPress Backup to automate the information backup process.
Here’s however this mightiness look with UpdraftPlus:
4. Migrate Your Data to the New CMS
The nonstop process you’ll usage adjacent volition beryllium connected the CMS you’re migrating to.
Most platforms (such arsenic WordPress and Squarespace) person supporting documentation connected their authoritative website connected the champion mode to migrate.
Some platforms mightiness connection done-for-you CMS migration services (e.g., Wix Enterprise), built-in CMS migration tools (e.g., Squarespace), oregon automated CMS migration enactment (e.g., tools similar CMS2CMS).
5. Perform Testing and Quality Assurance Checks
Thoroughly trial your website aft completing the migration to cheque that everything is moving properly.
Here’s a useful QA checklist you tin apply:
- Make definite the website loads correctly and displays each indispensable elements
- Inspect for formatting oregon layout issues
- Test retired website navigation via the website paper (if present) and different links
- Assess whether images and videos are displayed properly
- Check that website search, buttons, forms, and different interactive website elements enactment arsenic intended
- Try creating a idiosyncratic relationship and logging successful (if applicable)
You should besides sojourn your website successful antithetic web browsers to marque definite it’s moving arsenic intended with each fashionable program. Or usage a instrumentality similar BrowserStack to automate the process.
Image source: TrustRadius
It’s besides important to cheque your website for show and technical SEO issues. This is wherever Semrush’s Site Audit instrumentality tin help.
Enter your domain URL successful the instrumentality leafage and click the “Start Audit” button.
The instrumentality lets you customize settings for the audit. Such arsenic including oregon excluding circumstantial URLs from the audit, specifying the idiosyncratic cause for the website crawl, etc.
But you tin instrumentality with the default settings successful astir cases.
Simply deed the “Start Site Audit” fastener to statesman the audit. The Site Audit instrumentality volition past analyse your website and contiguous you with a elaborate report.
In the apical left, you’ll spot a people for your wide website health.
If the instrumentality finds immoderate issues with your site, you’ll beryllium capable to reappraisal them by clicking connected the “Issues” tab above.
You’ll spot 3 categories of issues:
- Errors: Serious issues to hole arsenic soon arsenic possible
- Warnings: Issues of mean severity
- Notices: Issues that aren’t precise problematic but would beryllium bully to address
Click connected an contented to spot a database of pages containing that circumstantial problem.
Or deed the “Why and however to hole it” nexus adjacent to an contented to get an mentation and solution.
Once you’ve made definite determination are nary much issues contiguous and that your website works properly, people the website connected your caller CMS and halt utilizing the aged one.
Frequently Asked Questions About CMS Migration
What Are the Benefits of CMS Migration?
Migrating to a antithetic CMS tin amended your website loading speed, let you to entree further features (multilingual support, precocious SEO capabilities), and fortify your website’s security.
What Are the Risks of CMS Migration?
Some of the astir communal risks associated with CMS migration see nonaccomplishment of website information and functionality, layout and plan issues, and SEO problems.
How Do I Migrate My Content Management System?
Start by creating an inventory of each your existing content. Then, backmost up each your information and transportation it to the caller CMS.
Finally, trial your website to marque definite it’s moving decently connected your caller platform.
How Can I Improve My CMS Migration?
The champion mode to migrate to your caller CMS without immoderate issues is to archetypal papers each the steps needed. You’ll besides privation to see and code immoderate risks associated with the migration beforehand.
Migrate to a New CMS Successfully
A CMS-to-CMS migration tin spell smoothly if you travel the steps we’ve outlined above.
Our guide, alongside tools similar Semrush’s Domain Overview and Site Audit, tin marque the process a seamless and straightforward one.
Get started with a escaped relationship today.
This station was updated successful 2024. Excerpts from the archetypal nonfiction by Kristina Azarenko whitethorn remain.
English (US)